Chapter XXXVII

1. SO, Fragapatti departed, and sailed for Hi-rom, the heavenly kingdom of E'chad, Lord God of Arabin'ya and its heavens.

2. E'chad had also the Voice of Jehovih with him, and could not err. After his appointment to this division of earth and heaven, Jehovih commanded him, even as He had Ah'oan, to make an otevan and visit all the places, and make a record, before he established his kingdom. And these things E'chad did, taking thirty thousand companions with him, being surveyors, inspectors, recorders and numerators, and of such order as are required in preliminary examinations of the earth and lower heavens. Besides these, he had also his hosts of musicians, his heralds and messengers.

3. Forty days he spent in this labor, and then the record was completed, of which E'chad had two copies made, one for his own kingdom in etherea, and one for the heaven he was about to found. Of these records, which are everlasting in heaven, the numerators estimated one thousand million and eight hundred thousand spirits, wandering about, mostly on the earth, many of them falling into forgetfulness and dissolution. And many of them had forgotten who they were, and had no remembrance of once having lived mortal lives. Millions and millions of them had forgotten their speech, and were dumb. Millions of them lived with mortals as fetals and familiars, depending upon the spiritual part of the food mortals drank and ate for their own existence. And yet other millions of them pursued evil for evil's sake, inspiring mortals to war, for the delight of seeing them destroy one another, and of persuading mortals to suicide, and to all manner of wickedness.

4. In the region of Gavies there were four hells, in which there were sixty million souls in torments, tormenting one another in perpetual horrors, especially males and females doing what is even unlawful to mention. And these tormentors would bring es'yans, fresh from the earth life, and cast them into their hells for these wicked purposes. For even as mortals delight in vengeance, so can the talent grow until its feast lieth in the fruit of hell; neither desire such spirits to have even their own torments lessened; nor could they of themselves escape were they to try.

5. E'chad would fain have rushed in and delivered these hells, but Jehovih said unto him: Go thou first and establish Hi-rom, with suitable habitations, and then return and deliver these hells, and thou shalt have places for them. So E'chad established Hi-rom, and appointed the Holy Council of one hundred thousand men and women. Sa-ac he made chief marshal; and he appointed Geth'ya his assistant God. Jehovih said to him: Sixty Lords shalt thou appoint to thy division of the earth; and they shall dwell in the principal cities of Arabin'ya, and have dominion over mortals. And each and every Lord shall have ten thousand ashars to do their commands.

6. These, then are the Lords appointed by the Lord God, for Arabin'ya, p. 266 to wit: First, to have dominion over the revealed Word: Tsdasag, Bachar'Raab, Nathan, Neshu, Dath, Shephat, Gaon-ay, Cha'ya and Zeker.

9. In addition to these, the Lord God appointed censors of Hi-rom and her colonies in heaven; and the ashars appointed over mortals as guardians were directed to which colony to take their es'yans, where were stationed the asaphs, the receivers.

10. As soon as E'chad had these matters completed, he descended into the four hells with his otevan, taking with him three million angels to help him deliver them. And when he arrived at the place, behold, the power and light of Jehovih was upon him! And he surrounded the four hells with his hosts of angels.

11. Fire of Thy Fire, O Jehovih! he cried; give me here walls of fire, to inclose these suffering hells! And in the line of his hosts there fell from the firmament above sheets of fire, and he walled the places around in such brilliant flames and suffocating flames that not one of the inhabitants of hell could escape.

12. And E'chad and his hosts fell upon them, right and left, building fires in pillars and walls, blinding to the drujas, so they fell flat down and hid their faces. And they marched through and through the four hells, until all the inhabitants were fallen prostrate before them, crying out. And they were all naked, men and women; and only the recent victims were ashamed.

13. E'chad said: Fall to, now, and deliver those who are ashamed, making a place beyond the walls of fire; but wall ye the place around also, and then clothe and feed them. So E'chad's hosts delivered those who were ashamed. Again E'chad called out: Begin now in sections and deliver the others into prisons, surrounded by fire, suffocating, so they cannot escape. And let not the light cease to fall upon them that will not be clothed. Better is it that they lie prostrate than to display themselves nakedly. But as fast as they will accept and wear clothes, and cease cursing, deliver ye them into genial lights.

14. For six days and six nights E'chad labored in delivering the four hells, and on the seventh day they were all delivered. And there were amongst these drujas three and a half millions in chaos, spirits who had lost their minds by the torments that other spirits had bestowed upon them. These E'chad had placed in his otevan and sent to Hi-rom, to be treated by the physicians.

15. But E'chad and many of his hosts remained with the groups of the delivered, further preparing them for resurrection. And now E'chad had them inspected, and he further searched the es'pe of the earth to establish the origin of these hells, and as to who they were. This, then, is the substance of the history of that matter, to wit:

16. In the lower country of Arabin'ya, on the earth, there had been a tribe of I'huans of hundreds of years, who had attained to thirty cities, chief of which was Os'nu, which was the capital over all the rest. Os'nu was ruled over by Che-muts, a king of great wisdom and power in his youth; but, after subjugating all the large cities of Arabin'ya, he became a tyrant and a man of wickedness.

17. Being learned in the earth, and moon, and stars, he drew to his palace other men, and not a few women, of great learning, and, together, they resolved upon obtaining from the I'hins, the sacred people, the secrets of their miracles and religion. Up to this time all the people in the world respected the I'hins, neither denied them in anything, for they were the forefathers and foremothers of the I'huans.

18. Che-muts, the tyrant, said: Because from our youth we have been taught to revere the I'hins, we have become superstitious regarding them. Now it is evident that they have some other means (than consulting the stars) of prophecy. It is my command, therefore, that the different cities of I'hins be seized, and the people put to death, offering succor only to such as reveal their secrets. With their gifts of miracles and power of prophecy, I can march successfully p. 267 against Parsi'e, Jaffeth, and Ashem, and I shall become king of all the world. And ye that help me in this matter, instead of having merely cities to rule over, as ye now have, shall have kingdoms with many cities.

19. The learned men acceded to this, and, shortly after, the king's people fell upon the I'hins, pulled down their flimsy walls, putting them to flight or slaying them outright, offering no salvation save they would reveal their secrets, and give themselves up to marriage with the I'huans.

20. Hab-bak, a chief rab'bah of the I'hins, went to see the king and expostulate. He said unto Che-muts: Behold, my people are older than this country. Our wisdom cometh not as other men's, but through marriage. How can we reveal? We are born vailed. No other people are thus born. How canst thou obtain the secrets of the womb? Besides this, we are sworn before our birth by our fathers and mothers to secrecy in our religion.

21. Thou desirest us to intermarry with thy people. I foresee thy aims. Thou hopest for the gift of prophecy, which, if given to evil men, would give them all power. But know thou, O king, he that desirest prophecy for such purpose can never obtain it. Prophecy cometh by the other road.

22. If my people intermarry with thine, it is simply the loss of mine. If thou hadst our pass-words and our signs, they would avail thee nothing, being born as thou art. According to our number, we pay thee thy just tribute. I pray thee, then, to change thy decree and suffer my people to remain as they have, thousands of years!

23. Che-muts, the king, said: Why call ye yourselves I'hins? Hab-bak said: Because we are Faithists in One Great Spirit. The king asked: What is the secret name of the Great Spirit? Hab-bak said: I can only repeat that name under certain rules; otherwise I will lose my power of prophecy. Besides, if thou knowest the name, it would be worthless to utter it. To whoever uttereth His name not in faith, it is void. Whoever uttereth His name for earthly gain or earthly glory, uttereth in vain also. Of what value, then, would the name be to thee, even if I violated mine own oath and revealed it to thee?

24. The king mocked him, and had him seized and taken to the lions' den, of which all kings and rich people, in those days, had one or more, as a place for casting in their disobedient servants. And when Hab-bak was at the lions' den, the king again offered to save him if he would reveal even the name of the Great Spirit, hoping that by its utterance he could also heal the sick, restore the blind and deaf, and especially prophesy. Hab-bak said: Though thou mayst cast me in, and I be devoured, suffer me beforehand to prophesy concerning thee and thy kingdom. Yea, I will even prophesy concerning myself. Hear thou, then, my words:

25. Thou hast sought to destroy my people, who are, compared to thine, only as one little finger to a man's whole arm. In Os'nu thou hast hundreds of thousands of people, and in other cities tens of thousands, and tens of thousands; so many that one man in his whole life could not number them. Yet, as to my people, what are they? Not more than ten thousand altogether. Hear thou, then, my words: Not one thousand of my people canst thou destroy. Neither will my people raise a hand in self-defence.

26. But thou wilt cast me into the lions' den, and I will be devoured. And this little hat, without a brim, will come out of the lions' den, and it will be a mighty power for thousands of years. It will be red with my blood, shed because I am faithful to the Great Spirit in my oath. And it will be restored to my people, and it shall be called THE SCARLET HAT! And in the day that it is carried in the streets of Os'nu, thou wilt be slain by thine own people.

27. The king laughed, saying: A prophecy often causeth fools to carry it out. With that, he gave the executioners the sign, and they pushed Hab-bak on the trap, and cast him into the den, where there were thirty lions. And they fell upon him and devoured him. And his hat was colored red with blood; and some of the people, who were superstitious in regard to the I'hins, procured the hat and went about repeating the prophecy of Hab-bak, and the multitude were anxious for some pretext to justify themselves in destroying the tyrant. So, presently, the city was in riot, and the people fell upon the king and slew him, and also slew the learned men and women who were his counselors and subsidiaries.

28. In the libraries of heaven it is recorded as followeth, to wit: Because of the cruelty of Che-muts, king of Os'nu, on earth, thousands and tens of thousands of people had been put to death; and because they died in anger, and because of the injustice, their souls went into torment in hada, and they came and incensed the king p. 268 to greater wickedness, in order to have him slain. And it so came to pass that Che-muts, chief king of Arabin'ya, was slain by his own people, and the king's counselors were slain with him.

29. And when their spirits were delivered from their mortal bodies, the drujas fell upon the king's spirit, and the spirits of his counselors, and bore them off to a foul-smelling place in hada, and cast him and them in, and the drujas went in after them, beating them. Whereupon it became known in hada there was a newly-started hell, and other spirits brought other victims there and cast them in. And the drujas went around about on the earth, in Arabin'ya, finding whomsoever they hated, bringing their spirits into hell, beating them and otherwise punishing them, until these four hells became the habitation of sixty millions of souls.